The LA Clippers have severely missed the presence of Blake Griffin over the last four weeks. They've compiled a record of 6-8 over the 14 games that Griffin has missed, with wins over the Houston Rockets, Toronto Raptors, and Washington Wizards during that time.
While Griffin was fully expected to miss close to eight weeks with the sprained MCL injury suffered on November 28 against the Los Angeles Lakers, he has made incredibly swift strides after attacking the rigorous rehab the Clippers' training staff placed before him. He entered Friday's contest being listed as questionable, but head coach Doc Rivers confirmed that he would return and start against the Lakers, but would be on a minutes-restriction.
Doc Rivers confirms that #Clippers ' forward Blake Griffin WILL return and start tonight vs. the #Lakers. Griffin will be on a minutes restriction.
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) December 30, 2017
Griffin played in the first 19 games of the season for the Clippers, averaging 23.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 0.9 steals per game. While he has been shooting a career-low 42.5 percent shooting from the field thus far, he's also shooting a solid 35.3 percent from beyond the three-point arc and making 2.2 three-pointers per game.
Griffin, who was expected to be out until late January, says the Clippers training staff worked hard to get him back to game-shape and he even went as far as to call this rehab one of the toughest of his career.
“This has probably been the toughest road for me,” said Griffin. “I was joking with them (the trainers) like, ‘I hope nobody get hurt ever again,' because their whole simulated game and conditioning stuff that I've been doing over the past 2 and a half weeks has been crazy. I feel like my wind is as it's good as it's been.”
Head coach Doc Rivers said yesterday before practice that he anticipated the training staff assigning a minutes limit to Griffin, and prior to the game, Rivers revealed that Griffin would be limited in minutes of action, joking that he wouldn't play 40 but not specifying the exact minutes restriction.
Griffin's early return comes at a time when the Clippers are facing an important stretch where 10 of their next 14 games at home, including 13 of 14 in the state of California and only one back-to-back set at the Warriors and at the Kings.
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